As the days are slowly getting longer and there are a few signs of spring, now is the time to think about some annual lawn maintenance.

Thick layers of lawn thatch can form over time, hindering the drainage of water and nutrients through the grass layer into the subsoil. This can hamper the development of a resilient root network, reducing the lushness of your lawn and making it less resistance to drought.
Lawn dethatching or scarifying helps promote healthy lawn growth by slicing through the thick level of thatch. It’s also a great way to remove any moss buildup after a long wet winter.

Cutting the lawn just before scarifying makes the scarifying process easier and reduces clogging. The actual level of scarifying or cutting need only be 5 – 10mm deep: too many enthusiasts make the mistake of scarifying deeper, thereby harming the lawn.

Like scarifying, lawn coring is an easy way to alleviate the issues caused by lawn compaction, particularly in high traffic areas. Lawn coring or aeration punches holes into the soil using hollow tines and removing plugs of soil from the lawn. Coring provides a simple method to introduce water, nutrients and oxygen to the soil. Coring machines drop the plugs on the lawn. These can either be raked up, or mown over, or left to naturally breakdown over time.

The addition of some nitrogen-rich fertiliser and water after scarifying or aerating will help the lawn recover and flourish.
In the last few years we’ve had increasing demand for specialised equipment such as lawn scarifiers and lawn aerators. We’ve added this equipment to our range, along with a few other lawn maintenance tools such as our rollers and spray unit to our lawn maintenance projects page https://bit.ly/UHH4LawnMaint

Not many hire companies offer seasonal items like scarifiers. However it seems there are enough passionate gardeners in the Wellington region, keen on taking pride in their lawns.